Who's going to refer the referral?

Ever felt the sickening nausea hit you when you realize a system you have planned and built meticulously has boomeranged so hard that people find it hard to believe someone actually let you build it in the first place?

That's the kind of feeling the guys over at the ICC chambers must be feeling rushing through every bit of their nervous system after almost 10 months since the referral system was introduced,allegedly on a trail basis and heaven-knows-why,directly at the biggest arena of the game,a player,spectator,writer and everyone associated with the game aspires to be-test match cricket.

Enough has been debated about this referral system by now but quite frankly cricket is already in enough turmoil,what with the management at the Caribbean seemingly having resigned to the fact that there shall be an incident every single time an important tour takes place there.Viv Richards must've wanted to erase all memories of him taking his bat out in the field,arms swinging,gum chewing,splitting balls in two and in the process getting a tribute by means of getting a whole stadium built in his name.And what happens?Oh,well someone forgot to make sure it wasn't built on a beach.Big deal.Scmucks!!Keeps happening all the time at the Caribbean fellas!

Fast forward to test no.4 at the newly laid out lush green Kensington Oval.1st Innings,WI trailing England by more than 300 runs,4 wickets down.Anderson bowls to Chanderpaul,batting on 70.Ball hits in line,nips back,Chanderpaul raises his arms,doesn't offer a shot on the front foot;Ball clips the top of the pad way above the knee roll and the umpire gives this one out.Shiv,as does everyone watching the match on their sets,thinks the on-field adjudicators have gotta be kidding their wits.So he decided to use the newly laid out system supposed to usher in an era of justice,where no one goes back to the dug-out at least,unfairly.

The rule book states that,unless the 3rd umpire has absolute and "conclusive" evidence so as to clearly know of their being no discrepancy in the on field umpire's decision,only then can he revoke a decision.The catch here is,even after the 3rd umpire is allowed the use of technology,for some unimaginable self-righteous code,he isn't allowed the hawk-eye,or at least the movement of the ball after impact.

Now, Daryl Harper,the 3rd umpire is forced to make a decision on the basis of the half-available hawk eye and the rule book stating there to be no revoke in case of credible evidence not being present so as to overrule,this in spite the other fact that clearly there was no need of a man to have attended any geometry lessons in his entire school and college life to know the ball was going over the top .So forced to make a decision,in spite of knowing it to be the wrong one,Mr.Harper asks the guys on field to stick with the earlier decision.

Similar incident,half an hour later with the new batsmen at No 6.Brendan Nash.Struck in line,ball not doing much,seems high and given not out.This time Andrew Strauss and company appeal.Out of some un-foreseeable reason,where in Harper seemed to have suddenly grabbed his own hawk from the sky,allows for a sudden change of plans in the "conclusive evidence" part and judges it to have been a wrong decision by the guys at the middle.Aleem Dar crosses his arms at his shoulders(a sign of revoke,but more a sign of disgust to the game in reality)and gives it out.Where did the evidence of the sudden surety of the path of the ball come in from suddenly?Who cares?It's the Caribbean.No?Yeah.That's right.It's test match cricket Sir.

Now,either there is an additional rule in the ICC book not everyone is aware of.Or 3rd umpires get to have a drink or two occasionally as and when time permits while the game is still in progress for this sort of a bias to be explained or someone has got to come out with a system where in a re-referred referral could be referred to a 4th party,may be on the Internet while the game is conducted in the most shameful of ways possible,while people on the other hand still keep coming up with ways to make a test match possible on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean aka Viv Richards stadium.

It's a very simple logic that people still decide to play a game of cricket with human beings.Technology can go only so far as to make things more believable while even 'it' can't actually ascertain in totality,an occurrence of an event which never did occur in reality.There are only two ways as far as even thinking about implementing this new system goes.Start from the county level(something tested not satisfactorily)and make sure every possible resource is available to the 3rd umpire after a referral is made.

To put it in simpler words,if a referral is indeed made,the decision on whether or not it's out should be allowed to be taken by the new adjudicator in his individual capacity,by providing him with the latest in gizmos and technology and not ask him to having to be a judge on whether or not the previous decision was right or not.If a revoke is indeed made,the previous decision automatically becomes void as not having been taken with conclusive evidence on the mere merit of it having being over turned by the 3rd umpire!!If not,forget everything and let the guys in the middle use all their impulse as it has been happening for a century and a half and let's have a game in our hands!

Some one's got to make a referral on this new referral system.Cricket's having it's own tough times.Zimbabwe is virtually extinct.No one's wanting to watch test matches.Cricket is slowly becoming a movie show with 3 hour matches.Australia are going downer by the day(which in more ways than one is actually good for cricket).Pakistan hosts tests in leap years.Test matches are being played on make shift pitches on beaches and like the proverbial cherry on the cake,we have the referral system being used by the 3rd umpires who need to have to carry the rule book along and still not being able to tackle the "conclusive" evidence part.

We already have enough on our plates so far as knowing what things are to be sorted out to carry the legend of the game ahead.Adding in newer and bitterly confusing methods to an already struggling form of the game is like actually telling the handful of audience to make sure they surf through live broadcasts,acting as if a match never really was in progress.

Put an end to this now.At least it'll be a beginning away from the end.